Science: Freudian on Murder

Nobody loves a murderer  but almost everybody loves a good murder
story. To find out why people are so interested in murder,
Psychoanalyst Theodor Reik, a fan himself, probed the subconscious of
detectives, criminologists, judges, juries.
His report, published this week (The Unknown Murderer; Prentice-Hall;
$3), indicates that the line between murderers and the rest of the
population is narrower than most people like to think.

Hanged for a Thought. Viennese Dr.
Reik, whom Freud considered one of his most brilliant pupils (he is now
a practicing psychoanalyst in Manhattan), in general agrees with
Goethe, who confessed: "There is no crime...